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emily meyer, chief creative officer and co-founder:
Emily’s inspiration began at her childhood home in Texas, where the live oak trees created a dreamworld that spread as far as the eye could see. Growing up, her mother introduced Emily and her sister to the languages, arts and cultures around the world. To follow her love of fashion, Emily left Texas to study at Parsons School of Design in New York. After spending a year living in Paris, she returned to New York to design menswear for top designers Ralph Lauren, Perry Ellis and Alexander Julian. Lured to San Francisco by love, she spent days and nights designing childrenswear at Gymboree and Esprit. Eventually she couldn’t resist her powerful vision of globally influenced and inspired clothing for children—and so began Tea.
leigh rawdon, ceo and co-founder:
Leigh’s dad taught her to spell entrepreneur when she was in second grade. She was always recruiting her neighborhood friends for door-to-door bake sales or an afternoon of playing shopkeeper. In high school, she had her first business license to sell balloons for parties. After studying English at Davidson College, she returned to the business world but quickly realized she couldn’t work for someone else. While attending Harvard Business School, she continued to search for the big idea. It didn’t arrive until she had moved to San Francisco to work in Silicon Valley. Her friend Emily confided in Leigh about her dream for Tea and Leigh knew that was it—Tea was the big idea.
laura joukovski, coo:
Laura starts every day with “dobroye utro”. That means Good Morning in Russian. Laura is focused on raising her two little citizens of the world, Kate and Max, to embrace their Russian heritage. At the same time, Laura is focused on leading Tea to operate as efficiently and profitably as possible. She developed a passion for solving business problems as a strategy consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton and discovered enthusiasm for the apparel business in finance and supply chain roles at Levi Strauss. Laura has a CPA, an MBA from Yale, and a BA in Economics from Davidson College. Now, Laura brings her extensive experience and perspective on the world to Tea Collection—for little citizens of the world.
lauren uppington, vp of merchandising & production:
Lauren’s passion for fashion dates back to her early years, when she decided her dolls needed a better wardrobe — so she designed them one. After earning her BA from Dartmouth, Lauren spent several years in strategy consulting at Bain & Company, and then found her true passion calling once again. At Gap, Inc, Lauren learned the fashion business firsthand through a variety of roles in Strategy, Merchandising and Operations, also taking a break to earn her MBA at Harvard. When Lauren isn’t leading merchandising at Tea, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two little citizens, and dreams of long runs in exotic places. Among her most memorable runs include Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong and Kruger National Park in South Africa!
tim watson, vp of sales:
In high school, Tim worked part-time in a sporting goods store, and he's been hooked on retail ever since. A graduate of Williams College, Tim climbed the ladder to menswear buyer at Bloomingdale's, traveling the world for finds like leather goods from Florence, cashmere from Germany, and cuff links from London.
After earning an MBA from Harvard and spending two years in the software business, Tim returned to retail as a merchandising manager for Walmart.com, overseeing categories like jewelry, gifts, furniture, and housewares. While at Wal-Mart, Tim traveled even further afield to India, Thailand and China in search of shiny objects - diamonds and gemstones. In 2007, Tim joined Tea, where he leads the wholesale sales team and enjoys helping Tea customers of all sizes grow their businesses. Tim and his wife Jane live in Mill Valley, where they are expecting their first little citizen in December. An enthusiastic sweet tooth and general passion for food keep Tim active running the trails in Marin - he wants to be sure he can still fit into Tea's sample size!
laura boes, vp of design & product development:
When Laura was young, her great grandmother used to give her a bag of old scrap fabrics to play with. The bag contained a bounty of texture and color that opened a new door in Laura’s creativity. She would spend the day mixing and matching, sewing together scraps to make new creations. Laura followed this passion for fabric and design to Kent State University in Ohio, where she received her BFA in fashion design. While in school, Laura won a CFDA award, leading her to design children’s wear for retail heavyweight Target, and then for Gap Inc. and Oshkosh B’gosh. In 2006, Laura moved from New York to San Francisco to join Tea, where she now enjoys discovering the textures and colors found in cultures around the world.
